Savage River Brook Trout

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Upper Savage River

Since last Thursday, Inland Staff has been working to capture and radio tag adult brook trout in the upper Savage River. We have been focusing on the mainstem river from the Savage River reservoir, upstream to the mouth of Poplar Lick. This was being done as part of a brook trout movement study initiated during the spring of 2011.

During the pilot study last spring, we determined that traditional backpack electrofishing wasn�t effective at collecting trout in the river during times with very low water temperatures, so hook and line sampling (fishing) was tried over the last few days to determine its effectiveness. As we expected, it was found to be very productive using inline spinners, streamers, and dry flies. In fact, the fishing has been excellent, with numerous trout coming to hand. Roughly half of the fish caught have been brook trout and the other half hold-over rainbows from the past fall stocking.

Of the brook trout caught, most have been larger than 9.5�, with the largest so far taping out at 11.25�. In fact, all but one of brook trout caught have been over 8�. Also, over the last two days (Sunday-Monday), there have been tremendous hatches of grey midges (#24, roughly), crawling stoneflies, some caddis, and even a few mayflies! For a few of us, we landed our first trout on a dry during February!

Of the brook trout caught, each one over 9.5� was fitted with an internal radio tag. Other than a small surgical scar, these fish are nearly impossible to distinguish from un-tagged fish, so I clipped their adipose fin allowing anglers the ability to tell when they encountered a tagged fish. I have attached a before/after picture of an adipose fin clip below. We ask that if you encounter one of these fin-clipped fish, please release them as quickly as possible so that we may continue to learn from them. Also, if you encounter a tagged fish, give me a call at 301-689-7168 or email me at [email protected] with any information about the fish you may have (such as location, lure used, caught/released, date, time, etc.)

Here are a few pics from the field, showing what a clipped adipose fin looks like, and a few of our tagged fish...

Get out there and enjoy the nice February weather! The fish are biting!!!